Issue 4 Fall 2012

VOLUME 98 ISSUE 4 www.thecampanil.com Tuesday | Sept 25, 2012

See Moody’s page 3

Find more stories, photos, videos and live updates at www.thecampanil.com

Latina Heritage Dinner photos

See Page 5

Education equality discussed on campus

Negative outlook for Mills debt

INGRID SEYER-OCHI

Fatima SugapongStaff Writer

Bob Moses and Ruth Cossey held a discussion at Mills on Sept 20 about equality in education.

Bob Moses, a pivotal figure in 1960s Civil Rights Movement and founder of the U.S. Algebra Proj-ect, gave a public lecture at Mills on Thursday, Sept 20. The discus-sion was mediated by Ruth Cossey, an Education professor at Mills.

Moses discussed the importance of improving the math skills of mi-nority students, the history of our country and how that relates to the oppression in the education system.

His message to the Oakland community is that the system needs to focus on quantitative literacy in the education system, meaning that math skills are just as crucial as reading and writing skills.

According to Elizabeth Coffin-Karlin, a member of the audience, students are struggling because “they believe that they are broken, not the system.”

Moses engaged with the au-dience by distributing copies of the Constitution, reading it aloud, and asking the question, “What is it doing as opposed to what is it saying?”

He highlighted the clause in Ar-ticle IV, Section II, Paragraph III, in which oppression was evident through racism and classism. By asking the audience what their in-terpretations of the clauses were, he emphasized the importance of un-derstanding the Constitution rather than voicing whether or not they agree with it.

A member of the audience, a graduate student of Mills studying

public policy, said, “I think what it is doing is already setting a dis-tinction between class...(minori-ties) will be enslaved and will be brought back to where they have removed themselves from.”

Moses argued that oppression in the education system began when the Constitution went into effect in 1789. He gave a detailed history of oppression in the U.S. and has been a part of the effort to reverse its effect on minorities for over five decades. From this history, he drew the analogy of a “marriage” between freedom and slavery and as a result, the ever-present conflict among the Constitutional people.

According to Moses, the system is stunting the growth of minority students instead of nurturing it.

After the event, Janice Quan, a middle school math teacher in Al-ameda, said, “Equity and access is a goal, but we’re really far from it. (Moses) reinforced what it is - it’s about the teacher...and engaging the kids so they don’t feel like they’re not smart.”

Quan’s goal as an educator is to carry on Moses’ teachings and let students who don’t feel like they have equal learning opportunities know that “Yes, they can.” Accord-ing to Quan, the myth of the im-portance of literacy overshadows the importance of quantitative lit-eracy. She wants to erase that mis-conception and she feels like she is making that positive impact in her community.

“I’ve been able to affect a lot of the kids and their parents, so hope-fully that will have a ripple effect,” said Quan.

See Moses page 2

On Jul. 17, 2012, Moody’s In-vestor Services downgraded Mills College’s outstanding debt rating.

According to their website, Moody’s Corporation “is an essen-tial component of the global capital markets, providing credit ratings, research, tools and analysis that contribute to transparent and inte-grated financial markets.”

Mills’ rated debt affected was $33.5 million. Moody’s downgrad-ed Mills’ rating from Baa1 to Baa2 and revised the outlook from “sta-

ble” to “negative.” These rankings are part of the company’s index that measures a company’s credit risk and chances of defaulting if it wants to borrow money.

“The Baa rating is just above the middle (medium-grade) in Moody’s rating system,” President Alecia DeCoudreaux wrote in a memo on Aug. 2 to Mills Faculty and Staff. “Additionally, the outlook was re-vised from stable to negative; con-sistent with other rating decisions Moody’s has made for the higher education sector.”

Jamie Nickel, Interim Vice President for Finance and Treasur-er at Mills, wrote in an email that Moody’s does a credit rating every 2-3 years. Mills’ credit was last rat-

ed in Mar. 2010.In her memo, President De-

Coudreaux said that the college has no plans to issue bonds or borrow money.

“The Baa2 rating reflects the college’s ongoing negative operat-ing margins (Moody’s adjusted), thin unrestricted liquidity, and chal-lenging competitive environment, offset by good financial cushions to debt and operations, conserva-tive debt structure, and historically strong fundraising support, under-pinned by a new president who is focused on building a multi-prong plan to return the college to fiscal and enrollment equilibrium,” the Finanzen reported.

Nickel explained that unrestrict-

ed liquidity refers to the college’s fund balances — which are net assets, or the difference between assets and liabilities that have no donor restrictions that the college — can convert to cash. Nickel also explained that the value of build-ings, equipment, and real estate are excluded from the college’s unre-stricted liquidity because it cannot be easily converted to liquid assets.

“Moody’s is pointing out that Mills currently has very low unre-stricted, liquid balances,” Nickel said. “We have pretty strong donor-restricted balances, such as the en-dowments, but those must be used according to donor restrictions.”

Funds that are donor restricted — which means that the money

can only be spent on a specific program, type of financial aid, or building — are considered tempo-rarily restricted, according to Nick-el. Other funds include balances that have a restriction as to when the college will receive them (such as outstanding donations or remain-der interests in charitable annuities and trusts). This money also classi-fied as restricted due to the funds’ time restriction.

“College funds that were given as part of the donor restricted en-dowments (the vast majority of Mills’ current investments) have a permanent restriction associated with them in that the college can

Jen Mac RamosOnline editOr

2 News


Lauren-Marie SliterEditor in Chief

[email protected]

5000 MacArthur Blvd.Oakland, CA 94613510.430.2246 phone

510.430.3176 fax

News Editor Annie O’Hare

Arts & Features Editor Joann PakMultimedia Editor Alheli Cuenca

Staff Photographer Chantelle Panackia

Design Editor Bridget StagnittoCopy Editors Diana Arbas, Wendy Ung

The Campanil welcomes public commentary on subjects of interest to the campus community, as well as feedback on the paper itself. Submissions for Open Forum should be no more than 400 words. Letters to the Editor should be no more than 150 words. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity only.

All submissions must include the author’s name and contact information and may be submitted via e-mail or in typewritten form, accompanied by an electronic copy. No anonymous sub-missions will be accepted. Submissions must be received one week before the publication date to appear in the next issue.

The Campanil reserves the right to upload all content pub-lished in print, in addition to original content, on our website, www.thecampanil.com.

The Campanil is published every Tuesday. The first copy of The Campanil is free. Additional copies are 50 cents.

Students interested in joining The Campanil staff should contact the Editor in Chief.

Online Editor Jen Mac Ramos

Health & Sports Editor Eden Sugay

Staff Writers Ruby Woods, Fatima Sugapong, Emily Mibach, Rachel Levinson, Jade Jones-Hawk

Copy Chief Elizabeth Rico

Managing Editor Amber Mendoza

Webmaster Ching YuOpinions Editor Shanna Hullaby

Sept 25, 2012

Mills celebrates incoming and graduating students

Moses from page 1

His dedication to his work was evident when Coffin-Karlin shared with the audience that her father was a student of Moses’ in the early

1960s. Moses immediately remem-bered who her father was and im-pressed the audience with his de-tailed memory of the student.

Moses’ legacy is being car-ried on through the generations. He taught Coffin-Karlin’s father,

and has influenced Coffin-Karlin’s practice as a teacher. She will con-tinue to use her learning experi-ence from the event to influence the next generation - the students in her classroom.

“It’s just amazing to see a real

legend of the Civil Rights Move-ment, someone I read about in col-lege classes,” said Coffin-Karlin. “More than that, inspiration as an educator to really assess every bit of my practice under this guise of...not letting yourself be that innocent

person...not letting yourself make excuses...and fighting against these preconceptions of what education should be and what it means to be a kid who is an ‘under-achiever’ and why those structures are set up that way.”

On the morning of Saturday, Sept 28, Mills will host Convo-cation for the 160th school year. While Commencement celebrates graduating students and sends them off into the world, Convocation oc-curs in the Fall and brings the Mills community together in anticipation of the coming school year.

The ceremony will honor the academic achievements of select

students and faculty, recognize the graduating class and welcome those students in their first semester at Mills.

Speeches will be made by grad-uate student Elizabeth Rico, under-graduate senior Rebecca Freeman and Provost Sandra Greer.

“I’ve always felt like Convo-cation is more of an in-house cel-ebration, something for us,” said Director of College Events, Linda Northcott.

The choice of Greer rather than an outside speaker is particularly exciting for Northcott.

“That tells us we don’t need

somebody from the outside, we’ve got talent right here,” Northcott said. “And her speech is going to be really good.”

In addition to the speeches, The Mills College Choir will be sing-ing the Mills Hymn, “Fires of Wis-dom.” It has been 22 years since the college has had a choir, and this will be the newly-formed group’s first performance.

Instead of being held at the very beginning of the semester, Convo-cation is held on the same weekend of Alumnae Reunion and Family Weekend so visitors and alumnae can take part in this special event.

Annie O’HareNews editor

Julia Morgan Buildings Tour

Thurs 4:00-4:30 p.m., Fri 4:00-5:00 p.m., Sat 9:00-10:00 a.m.

Campus architect Karen Fiene hosts a tour of the historic Julia Morgan-designed buildings on campus.

Mills College Art Museum Exhibition

Thurs-Sun 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Points of Pride: Showcasing the Best of Mills College

Friday, 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Jane’s Stroll

Friday, 4:00pm-5:30pm

Jane Cudlip King, class of 1942 hosts an easy walking tour around campus and tells stories.

Salsa! Salsa! Salsa! Alumnae of Color Reception

Friday, 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Mills Community Tennis Festival and Barbeque

Saturday,11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Free to attend, BBQ meal $10 for adults, $8 for students and $5 for children 12 years and under.

Dessert Reception with President DeCoudreaux

Saturday 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Soccer Match: Mills College vs. UC Santa Cruz

Sunday 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Elizabeth Rico, this year’s graduate student speaker, gained her undergraduate degree from UC Irvine, and hails from Moreno Valley. Describing Nancy Drew as her “gateway books,” she hopes to work in publishing Young Adult Literature. She says she is excited to speak to Mills about being cre-ative and not getting bogged down by schoolwork during the year. She insists, “You should get off campus and take a break!”

Rebecca Freeman, ASMC Stu-dent Body President, wears many hats on campus and is most likely a recognizable face. In addition to her responsibilities within ASMC, she is also Undergraduate Orienta-tion Coordinator for the Office of Student Activities (OSA) and am-bassador to many campus organi-zations. She will be speaking about her experiences of meaningful one-on-one interactions, something she considers a unique quality of the culture here at Mills.

Dr. Sandra Greer joined Mills in 2008 as Provost, Dean of the Faculty, and professor of Chemis-try. This will be her last convoca-tion as Provost of Mills College and she is very pleased to deliver her speech entitled “Education for Humility”. Next year, she will be rejoining the Mills faculty in the Chemistry Department.

Meet the Convocation speakers

Can’t make it to Convocation? The Campanil will be livestreaming the event online at thecampanil.com!

3News Sept 25, 2012


Ruby WoodsStaff Writer

JADE JONES-HAWK

A Bon Appetit employee serves students at Founders Com-mons dining hall. As of Sept 1, all ground beef served at Mills has been held to higher animal welfare and safety standards.

World and Local NewsAnimals earn world record

Guinness Book of World Records gives a nod to local Bay Area animals. Zac, a 22-year-old par-rot from San Jose has the most slam-dunks by a parrot. Zac the parrot is from the Happy Birds Performing Parrot Show in San Francisco. Zac did an amazing display of 22 slam-dunks in 60 seconds using his specially de-signed basketball hoop.

Local proposition opposed

A ballot measure that would toughen penalties for human traffickers in November is draw-ing some unlikely opponents: or-ganizations that work to protect trafficking victims although it has hundreds of law enforcement and political endorsements.

The opponents, who range from a South Bay nonprofit to a co-author of California’s current law against trafficking, say that, in-stead of helping, Proposition 35 will set back their work by years.

New monkey species discovered

Scientists are claiming to have discovered a new species of monkey deep in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The species was report-edly already know by locals and called Lesula. The species’ sci-entific name is Cercopithecus Lomamiensis, scientists believe it has been distinct from its clos-est relative, the Owl Face, for millions of years.

Arctic sea ice shrinks to lowest level of record.

The national Snow and Ice Data Center says that satellite images show the smallest Arctic ice cov-er since record keeping began in 1979. NSIDC scientist Julienne Stroeve said that if the ice cap melt continues at this rate, it is likely that in 20 years one could steer a ship across the Arctic in August.

Bon Appetit raises ground beef standards

The Bon Appétit Management Company, Mills College’s food service provider, began sourcing its ground beef from suppliers that meet its own strict animal welfare standards on Sept 1.

Fedele Bauccio, Bon Appé-tit CEO and co-founder, told the Washington Post in August that he wants to change the meat industry and influence the “big players” to change their practices.

“The entire system of how we raise animals for food in this coun-try is deeply flawed,” Bauccio said in a press release. “We have to move toward a more agro-ecolog-ical model, one that doesn’t crowd animals in horrifying conditions, concentrating their diseases and waste, but instead lets them en-gage in their natural behaviors and grow on Nature’s time frame. That would be better for the animals and better for workers, the com-munities living around them and the environment.”

Back in February, Bon Appétit vowed that by 2015 it would pur-chase at least 25 percent of its beef, pork and poultry from ranches and farms whose practices have been certified by Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC), Animal Welfare Ap-proved, Food Alliance or Global Animal Partnership.

While there are animal welfare certifications that the meat industry has developed, in which the farms self-report their practices, the four accepted by Bon Appétit are third-party verified and have high stan-dards of animal-husbandry, the agricultural practice of raising and breeding livestock.

“As of September 1, all our ground beef served in over 500 ca-fés in 32 states – 1.2 million pounds in 2011 – must come from national suppliers whose cattle have been certified as humanely raised or from Farm to Fork suppliers, local ranchers with whom our chefs have direct relationships,” said Bonnie Powell, Director of Communica-tions for the Bon Appétit Manage-ment Company. “The reason we chose ground beef is that it was a way to make major progress toward that commitment: the vast major-ity of the beef we buy is ground, and we were able to line up a na-

tional supplier of Certified Humane ground beef on which the chefs can draw if they don’t have a Farm to Fork source.”

Powell stressed that these changes should not affect either the cost or choice of meals at Mills.

“Thanks to our buying power, we were able to negotiate a price for the ground beef that is not more expensive on average than the beef that we had been using,” Powell said. “All our ground beef was al-ready ‘naturally raised,’ meaning raised without artificial hormones or routine antibiotics, as part of a separate policy.”

The efforts of Bon Appétit to promote sustainable agriculture are being applauded by certifica-tion programs such as the Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC).

“We need companies like Bon Appétit Management Company to lead the way so we can grow the supply of humanely raised beef,” said founder and CEO of HFAC Adele Douglass, who helped write the beef standards, in a press re-lease. “Raising cattle is a big com-mitment, and changing practices can be expensive. Producers need to know that there is both a de-mand and a reward for doing the right thing.”

Moody’s from page 1

only spend a reasonable amount annually from these funds,” Nickel explained in an email. “The spend-ing essentially comes from the net return on the endowment invest-ments and is typically a percent of the market value of the invest-ments.”

High endowment spend rates is also another aspect that Moody’s found to be a negative operating margin. The spend rate refers to the percentage of endowment market

value removed from invested en-dowment funds and what is spent annually by the college according to donor restrictions.

“Mills has relied on spending from the endowment investments to support about 20% of the col-lege’s operating budget expenses, including student financial aid,” Nickel said. “Due to the decline in the value of endowment invest-ments when the economic crises occurred and Mills’ reliance on the endowments to support operating costs and financial aid, our current

spent rate is at seven percent, which is high.”

Moody’s prefers that Mills’ en-dowment spending to be five per-cent, which the college and the board will be working toward.

“The current endowment spend-ing policy approved by the board has a seven percent payout ceiling,” Nickel said. “A high spend rate puts pressure on the ability of the endowment investments to grow in value and provide future support.”

In Apr. 2010, The Campanil re-ported that Moody’s downgraded

Mills’ rating from A3 to Baa1.Former President Janet Hol-

mgren said to The Campanil on Apr. 10, 2010 that she did not ex-pect the College to exercise any layoffs or personnel-related cuts.

“We do not want to cut into our retention efforts,” Holmgren said. “We do not want to cut into our quality of education.”

Holmgren said that she wanted to hand Mills over in a strong po-sition financially to the next presi-dent of the college.

“We have weathered this cri-

sis well, and we will continue to weather it well, but we have to be fairly frugal,” Holmgren said.

Holmgren was replaced by Ale-cia DeCoudreaux as Mills College President in 2011.

Six members of the Mills staff were laid off on Nov. 30, 2011, during the first semester of DeCou-dreaux’s presidency. Since then, numerous staff members have left the college including Dr. Joi Lewis and Andrew Workman.

DeCoudreaux declined to com-ment for this article.

Moody’s downgrades college’s outstanding debt

4 Arts & FeaturesSept 25, 2012


Cyclones all over the world

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BRANDY TUZON BOYD

By the time Brandy Tuzon Boyd was in 7th grade she already had a love for journalism.

She had her own paper route and when she was a high school junior and senior in Washington state she was busy reporting for her school’s newspaper.

Tuzon Boyd attended Mills from the fall of 1987 to May of 1991 as a Communications major.

“My first semester was the first year Sarah Pollock, head of the Journalism program and English and Journalism professor, taught at Mills; her class Journalism 1 solidi-fied what I knew I wanted to do,” Tuzon Boyd said. “Because she required us to stay up on current events, [on goings] at the police station, court cases and required us to leave campus, made it as a career more interesting.”

In 1990, when the protests against making Mills College a co-educational campus were just beginning, Tuzon Boyd’s worked with Meredith May on The Cam-panil. May is now a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle and a vis-iting Journalism professor at Mills.

Upon graduating from Mills, Tuzon Boyd worked for several newspapers including The Willows Journal, where she reported on ag-riculture and water issues, the Tra-cy Press, the Salinas Californian and the Sacramento Bee.

Upon leaving the Sacramento

Bee, Tuzon Boyd started freelanc-ing, and at the end of 2007, she started her own news website, the Natomas Buzz.

Her news website focused on Natomas, a community in Sac-ramento that contains the King’s Arco Arena.

Crj.com, the Columbia Journal-ism Review, a bi-monthly publica-tion from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, released a profile on the Buzz and Tuzon Boyd’s work and why she started the Buzz in 2011.

“It was the lack of meaning-ful news coverage, there were no more neighborhood sections at The Sacramento Bee,” Tuzon Boyd told the Columbia Journalism Review. “If we were covered it was usu-ally quick hit pieces, some crime or school board stories. It was very in and out, not really in-depth or effective.”

Upon starting the Buzz, Tuzon Boyd conferred with colleagues and friends to see if they agreed with her thoughts on Natomas not getting enough in-depth coverage, and began thinking about starting what would become the Natomas Buzz for about 6-9 months be-fore actually starting the official Natomas Buzz.

The Buzz has been publishing for more than 4 years now; Tuzon Boyd considers the Buzz’s anniver-sary to be in January, and will be celebrating the 5th anniversary of publishing and writing the Natomas Buzz next year.

Last year was the first year Tu-zon Boyd began recruiting student

interns from the four local high schools in the Natomas region to be either journalism or photogra-phy interns for the Buzz, in an at-tempt to give local students more opportunities to become involved in journalism.

“There aren’t any programs at schools for young people who want to pursue journalism,” Tuzon Boyd told the Columbia Journalism Re-view. “They might have a video thing or yearbook, but in terms of print medium or writing there isn’t anything that supports that.”

I was one of her first journal-ism interns. She taught me and the other interns the basics of journalism writing and tips on basic photography.

Last year, when a student from my high school went missing, I was the first to let Tuzon Boyd know and I kept her updated throughout the time the student was missing.

Tuzon Boyd’s interns mainly report on events at the school. I started out reporting food drives and open mic nights, but some in-terns, began reporting on events in the community such as school board meetings or community award ceremonies.

“It turned out to work out really well (having the interns),” Tuzon Boyd said. “Like when the student went missing at your school, you told me right away or when the power went out in Natomas last week, an intern texted me from Natomas High (a school on the other side of Natomas from where Tuzon Boyd lives) to tell me that the power was out there as well.”The Natomas Buzz website published in a local magazine.

Brandy Tuzon Boyd, Mills class of 1991 with a BA in communications, holds up a sign advertizing her online news website, the Natomas Buzz, founded in 2007.

Emily MibachStaff Writer

A weekly look at what amazing things Mills Alums are accomplishing.

5Arts & Features


Snapshots of Latina Heritage Dinner

PHOTOS BY JEN MAC RAMOS AND JADE JONES-HAWK

Sept 25, 2012

Upcoming Events

SEPT 25Art Rockers Django Django Live

Amoeba SF, 1855 Haight Street, San FranciscoFree @ 6 p.m.

SEPT 30Open House at Cal Performances

11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Every FridayFriday Nights at the de Young

De Young Museum, Golden Gate ParkFree @ 6:30-8:45p.m.

SEPT 26

Monday Night Tights: Ballet Film NightMills College, Danforth Lecture Hall

Free @ 7 p.m.

SF JAZZ Summerfest 2012: FREE concerts in the park

Levi’s Plaza, 1255 Battery St, San FranciscoFree @ 12 p.m.

SEPT 31

SEPT 295th Annual Salsa Festival

Courthouse Square, 2200 Broadway, Redwood City

Free @ 12 p.m. - 8 p.m.

World Dodgeball Society: Crazy Costumes & Bad Pop/Punk MusicBushrod Rec. Center, 560 59th St, Oakland

Cost is $5 @ 7:30 p.m.

SEPT 27

For more photos and audio from the Latina Heritage dinner, subscribe to thecampanil on YouTube.

6 Sept 25, 2012


Opinions & Editorial

What is your favorite ‘90’s boy band?

Q U E S T I O N O F T H E W E E K

“Does Nirvana count?”

— Renee Gallison, senior

“Danzig”

— Melanie Astin, Post-bac

“Backstreet Boys”

— Imani Russel, junior

“ Take That!”

— Maja Jevgjovikj, 2nd year grad student

STAFF EDITORIAL

It is hard for me to talk about the TV show Saturday Night Live without simultaneously giggling and rolling my eyes. The giggle is in a tone only appropriate for a pre-teen about to meet Justin Bieber and the eye roll is one I would save for an incorrigible puppy. I have not only watched every episode that has aired since 2000 but con-sumed most its relevant highlights, documentaries and reruns avail-able. More than once, I have woken up inconsolable because it turns out I’m not actually best friends with Kristen Wiig, working for Lorne Michaels, and dating Andy Sam-berg as my dream had implied. Yes, my SNL obsession is fully blown.

Last week, the 38th season started with three new cast mem-bers, a new co-head writer and Seth MacFarlane hosting opening night. They definitely brought in a heavy hitter like MacFarlane to keep

things running smoothly after the departure of Wiig, Samberg, and Abby Elliott.

MacFarlane, best known as the creator of Family Guy, led a mono-logue that showcased his Sinatra-esque voice, other impression tal-ents, Family Guy references, and a sparkling smile. The opening included characters like an anti-semetic Kermit the Frog that hinted toward MacFarlane’s humor, most often based on obscure, crude, or surreal pop culture references.

The second half of the show in-cluded vignettes that would fit per-fectly into a Family Guy scene; a stuttering platoon sergeant, a pair of rural farm brothers attempting to run an e-commerce website, and a puppeteering class overshadowed by a Vietnam veteran.

However, the first half of the show is what brought in the most laughs and Internet views.

Jay Pharoah, who joined the cast two years ago, took charge of the Cold Open as President Obama and owned it. Like every other Presi-dential election year, the next few

months of SNL will bring in higher ratings and hopefully some won-derful political cameos

There was a great moment when Pharoah’s President Obama gave a speech. He bursts into song and serenades the audience with a few lines of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay To-gether” followed by a line on how charming it is when he sings to the people. He then urges the cameras to cut to a speech by Mitt Romney (played by Jason Sudeikis) who is caught singing “Old McDonald.” The Obama character then notes that the opposition’s campaign has been a “Christmas miracle.”

This is great because SNL not only slashes on the Romney/Ryan campaign, which is the easiest tar-get, but in this small moment rec-ognizes how much rock star status President Obama’s fandom some-times unjustly gives him. Through-out the episode, the writers made a point to argue that President Obama is definitely the lesser of two evils. There were plenty of other politi-cal sketches like a fake attack ad on Romney and a spoof-mercial of

Clint Eastwood’s new theater show with his sidekick “Chair”. I don’t think any of these jokes were fresh or transcendent but it was exciting to see Studio 8H back on screen hit-ting the ground running.

Weekend Update never fails since Seth Meyers has his fake news reporting down to a T with jokes focusing on everything from Chris Brown’s neck tattoo to the idea of using walnuts as a feasible power source. It also featured pseu-do-guest appearances from Honey Boo Boo the TLC star, Mimi Mo-rales the underage Latino voting mascot, and the Olympic’s star swimmer Ryan Lochte as a TV crit-ic. MacFarlane’s Lochte framed the host’s best screen time that night and let him stand-alone as a goofy comedian rather than a celebrity host in a costume.

The highlight of the night was so ridiculous and so silly that it re-minded me of any skit that brought Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell to-gether. The plot was loosely struc-tured around the idea that three guys (bros is a more appropriate

term) work at a mall hat shop and are as bored as the men in a Bud-weiser commercial before the beer shows up. With the press of a large red button, one dude is able to sum-mon out Psy (played by Bobby Moynihan), the South Korean rap star. The whole sketch has really no purpose but to recreate the 222 million-view count Youtube hit “Gangnam Style” on national tele-vision. It is wacky and it is wonder-ful. Those four minutes captured the whimsicality of older seasons so well that I was expecting Jimmy Fallon to come out any minute.

It’s hard to tell how the rest of the season will turn out, since MacFarlane provided such a solid foundation as a host. The exciting part of SNL is that it is truly dif-ferent every year and every week. So try tuning in the next Saturday night you’re stuck at home with nothing to do, but play the Mous-tache drinking game (with apple juice, obviously). SNL has always been there for me and will (almost) always make you smile. Saturday Night Live is at 11:30 PM on NBC.

Saturday Night Live presents: MacFarlane hilarity

The anatomy of a quote

“There are 47 percent of the peo-ple who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it -- that that’s an entitle-ment. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. ... These are people who pay no income tax. ... [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I’ll nev-

er convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

Governor Mitt Romney, 2012 Presidential Candidate.

This election year has been all about numbers. We had the Occupy Movement where the 99% stood up to the 1%. Polling numbers bounce up and down. Battleground states pop points back and forth. Now the American people are introduced to another number, 47%.

During a private $50,000 per plate fundraiser, presidential nomi-nee Mitt Romney made some con-troversial remarks about 47% of

Americans. He also made uncom-fortable statements about Mexicans and flip-flops on whether he inher-ited his money or if he earned it.

Many people believe that the quote was given in a colloquial manner … seemingly good na-tured and not intended for offense. However, it was a bit naïve of him to consider that his race or lineage would alter the Latino vote assum-ing that all other aspects of Rom-ney would stay the same. His be-liefs, policies, etc. on immigration laws wouldn’t change.

Most people want to know where Romney got the numbers. Is it true that 47% of Americans “rely on the government?” Is it true that

almost half the people of the United States believe they are “victims?” Do 47% of Americans think that they are entitled healthcare, food, and housing?

Others think this quote hap-pened at a very bad time for Romney and should cost him the election.

“I don’t want to worry about (them)” in context of winning their vote was permissible, but to say that all the Obama voters, or all people on welfare or similar programs are lazy and think that the government needs to take care of them. That’s the part that is unforgivable.

Romney’s only consistency is the consistent flip-flop.

“I was born with a silver spoon.”“Well, Ann and I didn’t use

the inheritance, we gave it away...we earned everything the old fashioned way.”

Mr. Romney, you had the silver spoon. What a person can do with a silver spoon in their mouth at an early age is going to be much dif-ferent than the hard-knocks life guy who wins the “lottery” of inheri-tance. Your father earned it all the old-fashioned way. And he earned it by first having the opportunities you claim to be “crutches.”

How can you write half of America off so easily? That sil-ver spoon sure did a lot for your perception.

Rachel LevinsonStaff Writer

A quote with unintended consequences: Romney reveals his true feelings for almost half of Americans

7Sept 25, 2012


Health & Sports

Eden SugayHealtH & SportS editor

Meditation labyrinth built outside chapel

Week after week, our Cyclones continue to go above and beyond their athletic achievements by balancing school, work, athletics and life.

Meghan Hinsch is no exception.Hinsch, now a senior at Mills,

began playing soccer in the first grade. Throughout high school, she said soccer took a backseat to cross country and track and field.

Hinsch is now both Captain and Midfielder of Mills’ soccer team. Additionally, she is a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Com-mittee (SAAC) and is a Research Psychology Major.

With this flurry of events in her daily life, it’s a wonder how she manages it all.

“That’s a really tough question to answer,” Hinsch said laughing. “I feel like I’m involved in so many different groups and organizations that my extracurricular activities become my life.”

Along with being the active soccer team representative of the SAAC, where Hinsch acts as lia-son between the soccer team and the APER staff, she is the APER senator of ASMC, a member of the yearbook staff, a peer tutor and studies with a full course load. Looking at a schedule like this, it seems she would barely have any time for sleep, let alone any time for fun.

“I’ve found that through the soccer team I’ve found my social life,” Hinsch said. “It’s a nice feel-ing knowing that everyone on the team is going through the same thing I am. It definitely takes a lot of effort to carve out the free time

to do fun things.”Hinsch’s work certainly

doesn’t go unnoticed by her peers and coaches.

“Meghan has amazing soccer skills and works really hard every game,” said soccer Coach Colette Bowler. “She knows the game and reads it really well.”

By reading the game, Hinsch is able to see and understand ev-erything that is happening as it is happening, Bowler said. Through that intuition Hinsch can determine where she needs to position herself and send the ball.

“She is an integral part of mak-ing plays happen during the game,” Bowler said. “Her efforts created our first goal of the season against UC Merced on last Saturday. Meghan is a joy to watch every game and her fitness is amazing.”

Soccer is no sport for the weak. Rigorous and persistent training is

necessary to keep up in the games.“I trained all summer in order to

be prepared for the season,” Hinsch said.

Hinsch trained with her high school cross country team, which included long distances and core training.

“I heard somewhere that profes-sional soccer players run seven to eight miles per game, and I always keep that in the back of my mind,” said Hinsch.

During the season, practice keeps Hinsch at a stable level of fit-ness. This season she plans to work on adding running outside of prac-tice and encouraged her teammates to participate as well.

“There are definitely times where I feel like giving up, but when I see that ball and I can see opportunities for great play, I just want to get to hit it and make it hap-pen,” she said.

As you enter the courtyard be-tween the chapel and the music building, you are met with a cir-cular pattern drawn in chalk on the gravel floor. The world grows a lit-tle more still as the rest of campus melts away. All that’s left is you and the rustling of leaves as squir-rels leap from branch to branch.

For the first few weeks of school, Reverend Laura Engelken and the Division of Spiritual and Religious Life (SRL) created a classic Cre-tan labyrinth called a “seed.” This particular pattern has seven folds, or turns, and only one path which leads in and out.

While SRL choose a seed laby-rinth because it was the easiest to create with chalk, the simplicity of the pattern does no detract from the experience you may have. The pat-tern’s simple design actually allows it to serve a variety of functions. You can use it as way “to center, to reflect, to pray, to do whatever, it’s really open,” said Engelken.

Another reason Engelken enjoys having the labyrinth in the gravel courtyard on campus is because it allows students to walk the path any time of the day, on their own terms. There is no right or wrong way to walk a labyrinth, and there definite-ly isn’t one particular feeling you are suppose to get. “Whatever feel-ing, or whatever happens is what’s

going to happen in that moment,” said Engelken. “And most likely, if you walk the labyrinth at another time, you’re going to have a totally different experience because you’re going to be in a different place.”

This isn’t the first time a laby-rinth has appeared on campus. According to Engelken, SRL has created seed labyrinths for the divi-sion of student life team, Summer Academic Workshop (SAW), and Being the First, a program for first generation college students.

The labyrinth has returned once more because Engelken feels “It allows folks to bring whatever is meaningful to them to it, and it’s a container so you can leave what comes up for you there, or you can take it with you.”

Currently, Engelken and the SRL programming assistants are maintaining the labyrinth, and they hope to keep it up until the rains wash it away. However, Engelken hopes that Mills may some day have a permanent labyrinth on the grounds. There have been a few suggestions already, the botanical garden, a corner of the meadow, or possibly near Cowell. No mat-ter where the labyrinth goes up, Engelken knows that it isn’t just the setting that matters, but the materi-als as well.

Each walk is personal, but whether you use your time in the center to receive guidance, reflec-tion, meditation or simply a quiet stroll, a visit to the labyrinth will put your mind at ease.

Elizabeth RicoCopy CHief

A meditation labyrinth, called a seed, has been built in the courtyard between the chapel and the music building at Mills. Students are welcome to take personal meditative walks there.

COURSTESY OF KURT LOEFFLER

JADE JONES-HAWK

Meghan Hinsch brings an intuition to the soccer fieldCyclone Spotlight

8 Health & SportsSept 25, 2012


Jade Jones-HawkStaff Wrtier

Chapel hosts spirituality activities

Social activism is not usually the first thing to come to mind when discussing spirituality, but to Reverend Laura C. Engelken, Director of Spiritual and Religious Life at Mills, the two are mutually supportive; caring for the self em-powers the self, enabling people to support others.

Every week on Tuesdays at 5:15 p.m., members of the Mills com-munity meet in Engelken’s office in the Mills Chapel for Wellspring, a weekly event centered around pro-viding a safe and inclusive space for members of the Mills commu-nity to reflect on their beliefs, call-ings, actions and lives.

“My intent was to create a space for folks to connect with one anoth-

er and their truth,” said Engelken. “I’ve always been interested in how people have or create meaning. I really try to create a space where people can be whatever they want.”

Engelken said she hopes that Wellspring provides a space to re-flect and gain some equanimity.

“Wellspring is a place where I can give myself some time to stop and just be instead of con-stantly rushing from a class to a meeting,” said one Mills student attending Wellspring.

Though practiced in many forms and for many reasons, medi-tation is an art of living in which focusing on breath and body posi-tion, enables an individual to quiet their mind and be present in the im-mediate world to really reflect on themselves.

“Everyone needs that moment of clarity. You notice when people who don’t meditate actually need it and how different their attitude would be if they did,” said Mills

first-year Morgan, who did want her last name published. “Medita-tion is a tool or a resource to find peace in whatever hectic reality you’re in. Meditation allows me to be above the situation and think things through.”

The Wellspring meetings are not affiliated with any one faith or spiritual practice, and instead in-clude works by poets, artists, and writers from diverse cultural and spiritual backgrounds.

“I think we can gain knowledge from others views, other faiths, oth-er religions,” Engelken said. “It’s important to reflect and think about how the ethical impacts of our per-sonal philosophy can be sources of liberation or oppression.”

Because, as Engelken sees it, oppression does not necessar-ily have to mean systematic or social oppression. Oppression can be internalized, with people inhibiting themselves.

“Since I feel that God created us

all to live with worth and dignity,” Engelken said. “Then it is part of our life’s journey to figure out how to live with self-worth and dignity ourselves, to discover that person, and support one another.”

Members of the Mills College community participate in these gatherings for different reasons. Some wish to practice meditation more regularly, some need advice, others need sanctuary.

“Meditation feels calming, like you actually have control of your life, and like anything in that ex-act moment you have the ability to change it, however you want , good or bad,” Morgan said. “Once I fig-ured out how to actually relax and center myself, [meditation] became a much more natural thing to do.”

At 12:15 p.m. on Thursdays in the Staff Lounge, adjacent to the Tea Shop, the Mills community has a second opportunity for re-flective, proactive spiritual prac-tice, known as passage meditation.

Engelken is present and involved, but representatives from the Blue Mountain Center for Meditation lead the exercises as part of their community work.

Passage meditation helps train the mind to relax and focus on one thing, with external forces having less of an impact on a person’s con-centration the more they ponder the impact of the text. Passage medi-tation could be thought of as the mental equivalent to the handling of prayer beads during prayer or a mantra, a way to occupy the mind and cultivate the ability to focus and be present.

Mills students may find medi-tation and the spiritual resources on campus beneficial in periods of feeling stressed and overworked, and are encouraged to develop and sustain their personal spiritual practices. Tuesdays and Thursdays, there is space to collect and be calm, and Engelken’s door is al-ways open.

ALL PHOTOS BY JADE JONES-HAWK

Laura Engelken, Reverend and Director of Spiritual and Religious Life at Mills.The front door of the chapel at Mills. Spirituality activites are hosted here.

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Issue 4 Fall 2012